For those unaware, “Few contemporary jazz-influenced singers manage to sound so intensely like themselves while drawing on such a variety of genres, languages, and cultural backstories as the Albania-born vocalist Elina Duni,” The Guardian has noted, and Reaching for the Moon once again casts a wide net.

It’s Duni’s third recording with UK guitarist Rob Luft, and where Lost Ships and A Time To Remember featured their co-led quartet, the core duo come to the fore here, in a program that begins with Irving Berlin’s title song and ends with Ornette Coleman’s “Lonely Woman”. Along the way we hear Duni and Luft originals, traditional music from Kosovo, a lullaby penned by Persian singer Mahsa Vahdat, a ballad from Italian singer-songwriter Pino Daniele, French composer Gabriel Fauré’s art song “Les Berceaux”, themes for film written by Japan’s Shigeru Umebayashi and Poland’s Krzysztof Komeda, and more.

“Our duo, our project, is a musical journey,” says Elina. “Different styles and different languages to bridge the gap between people”. Duni’s resourcefulness as singer is well-matched by Luft’s instrumental skills, the guitarist drifting mellifluously between idioms, gently enveloping melodies, underlining emotional expression in the song texts, and enhancing atmospheres. Reaching for the Moon was recorded at Studios La Buissonne in the South of France in June 2025.

1. Reaching for the Moon (Irving Berlin) [04:57]
2. Cammina Cammina (Pino Daniele) [05:19]
3. Les Berceaux (Gabriel Fauré, René-François Sully-Prudhomme) [02:58]
4. Ani More Nuse (Traditional) [03:14]
5. Foolish Flame (Elina Duni, Rob Luft) [04:02]
6. Leili Lullaby (Mahsa Vahdat) [05:38]
7. Zambaku i Prizrenit (Ahil Koci) [05:08]
8. Yumeji’s Theme / Sleep Safe and Warm (Shigeru Umebayashi, Krzysztof Komeda, Eddie Snyder, Larry Kusik) [02:54]
9. Magnolia (Elina Duni, Rob Luft) [02:54]
10. Your Arms (Elina Duni, Rob Luft) [04:52]
11. Lonely Woman (Ornette Coleman, Margo Guryan) [04:48]

Produced by Manfred Eicher and recorded in June 2025 at Studios La Buissonne, Pernes les Fontaines, the duo open their new recording on the languishing beauty of Irving Berlin’s Reaching for the Moon and the gracefulness of Cammina Cammina and then we get brought forth the sheer elegance of Les Berceaux, the impassioned traditional Ani More Nuse, with the luxuriant collective original Foolish Flame along next.

With Reaching for the Moon being Elina Duni’s sixth ECM recording, and her third with Rob Luft, they next bring us the evoking Zambaku i Prizrenit and that is in turn backed by the emotively ambient Yumeji’s Theme / Sleep Safe and Warm, a pair of originals in the form of the tenderly touching Magnolia and the heartfelt Your Arms, the new set coming to a close on the soulful Lonely Woman.

Official Purchase Link

www.elinaduni.com

www.robluft.co.uk